Irish PM, Ministers Back Demand to Teach Transgenderism in Elementary Schools

Leo Varadkar, prime minister of Ireland, joins members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and T
PAUL FAITH/AFP via Getty Images
Peter Caddle

Ireland’s Prime Minister, Deputy PM and other ministers have backed demands to see transgenderism taught in elementary schools.

Senior officials within Ireland’s hardline progressive government have backed demands to see transgenderism taught in the country’s primary schools, despite the massive backlash such a plan has seen.

It comes shortly after one of the largest elementary school groups in the country, the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association (CPSMA), denounced the plan in an open letter to ministers, alleging the plan aimed to teach children about a topic for which there is “no scientific or medical consensus”.

Such concerns have largely been rejected by senior officials in Ireland, with an Irish Times report noting the country’s Prime Minister. Deputy Prime Minister and a number of other officials coming out on Monday to support the plan.

“Trans people exist, they’ve always existed, and I think it makes more sense in schools to just inform children about the world around them,” declared Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s LGBTQ+ Prime Minister, while Ireland’s sitting justice minister, Simon Harris, described the plan as using “facts” and “science” to teach children.

Deputy Prime Minister Micheál Martin, meanwhile, lashed out at the CPSMA for its open letter to the government, alleging that it was an inappropriate way of dealing with the government’s plans to push pro-trans ideology.

“I think letters of that kind are not the way to deal with these issues,” he reportedly said. “I think that there has to be a sensitivity around this and the broader context is the Relationships and Sexuality programme which is in our primary schools.”

The major political response to the CPSMA’s letter seems to indicate some uneasiness within the Irish political class in regards to the public response to plans to teach transgenderism at elementary school level.

Although the controversy surrounding Ireland’s sex-ed system has been ruminating for a number of years now, this recent row appeared to be sparked after the country’s Children’s Minister, voiced open support for “transgender issues” to be taught in school ahead of a planned rework of various parts of the country’s education system.

The CPSMA, which represents 89 per cent of the country’s primary schools, hit back hard at such a suggestion with an open letter on Monday, decrying the plan as being inappropriate.

“We should not prematurely introduce children to complex and sensitive topics around which there is no scientific or medical consensus,” the group’s letter to politicians read.

It also expressed fear that the sudden spike in the number of “transgender” children may be down to it being a “psychological contagion” rather than an inherent biological issue.

“In the UK the numbers of children referred to the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) rose from 50 a year in 2009 to 25,000 in 2020,” the organisation wrote. “Significantly, this increase in referrals was accompanied by a change in the case-mix from predominantly birth-registered males with gender incongruence from an early age, to predominantly birth-registered females presenting with later onset of reported gender incongruence in early teen years.”

In response, pro-transgenderism NGO BelongTo criticised this letter, with the LGBTQ+ charity insisting that there really are “[t]rans young people” in Ireland’s elementary schools, and that “[i]gnoring their existence” by refusing to teach transgender ideology will cause them harm.

Follow Peter Caddle on Twitter: @Peter_Caddle
Follow Breitbart London on Facebook: Breitbart London

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.